Volvo V40 Cross Country launched in India

As they had promised, Volvo launched the V40 Cross Country in India today. It's been a while since they actually launched anything, but we strongly believe that the V40 Cross Country was worth the wait.

Sure, there has been quite a bit of a competition cropping up in the luxury hatch segment of late, but what will differentiate the V40 from the upcoming BMW 1 series and the Mercedes B-Class is that Volvo is marketing the Cross Country as a rugged soft-roader hatch.

The V40 gets black plastic cladding in the lower half of the bumpers (front, side skirts and rear) to protect it from scratches in case you go through some bad roads... which will be more often than not, we assume. The overall looks are from the V40 hatch (not launched in India), on which the Cross Country is based.

The interior comes with Volvo's signature floating dashboard, and is draped in black leather with a wooden centre console. You get an 8-inch TFT crystal display, a fixed panoramic sunroof, automatic braking up to 50kph and 7 airbags as standard. The speedometer is all-digital. In performance mode, the rev counter moves to the centre and the speed is numeric, while in the eco and elegance mode, the speedometer with the needle dials takes centre stage. There are seven ambient lighting colours to choose from, too. It also scores a five-star in Euro NCAP's crash test, so this is the safest you can be in a hatchback on Indian roads.

Besides that, the V40 comes with park assist pilot – an automatic parking feature similar to the one on the Volkswagen Passat. Under the hood, the Cross Country runs a 5-cylinder, 1,984cc diesel motor that makes 148bhp of power, and 350Nm of torque. With power sent to the front wheels; there's no AWD version planned anytime soon. Volvo is also not looking at launching the petrol version, nor do they have any plans to assemble it in India.

The Volvo V40 Cross Country is priced at Rs 28.5 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi.